Let’s Go to Taiwan! Episode 1

June 26, 2012

Over the past two years, I’ve been travelling to countries which I’ve already been before. This year, I’m glad to be able to add Taiwan as one of the countries I’ve visited so far. Prior to this trip, I knew a thing or two about this Chinese-dominated country which some presume that it is rather similar to other cities like Hong Kong or Singapore. Taiwan is nothing unfamiliar to me when most of the Chinese popstar singers originates from this country. This a country of pop singers, teenage dramas and teen idols.

Our tour guide

This time I travelled with a tour group instead. A few months ago, I signed up with a tour package to Taiwan with Five Stars Tour during the NATAS fair. It was suppose to be a 8-Day tour but it has been changed to a 9-Day tour because there aren’t any returning SIA flights on the last day of the trip (8th day).

We had a really thoughtful tour guide on board. He knew that many of us will have large notes with us so he brought smaller notes to exchange with us. He’s pretty much like our bank teller, helping us to break bigger notes and what he does is that he slots the smaller change into the auspicious red packet.

Feng Jia Night Market

This is one of the popular eatery in Feng Jia Night market. It’s very similar to hot dog except that they use rice instead of bread and it is fully packed with meat and vegetables. It’s too messy to find what is in it but it just tasted delicious!

Our first taste of Taiwan bubble milk tea without the pearls because the tapioca pearls are high in calories!

Next, we had a fried cuttlefish prepared by this young and friendly cook.

Spicy fried cuttlefish.

This is the first hotel we stayed in. It’s pretty luxurious considering the extra large king size beds they provide.

Howard Prince Hotel

My haul at the Feng Jia night market. There are a huge variety of clothes but I’m not too sure about its quality though. The threads at the seamings tend to get frayed very easily and beacause of that , I don’t advocate that you do your shopping spree of clothes in Taiwan night markets.

Wakey-wakey! Here comes my favourite part of day – mornings! You wake up refreshed and ready to kick start a brand new day and the best part about mornings is breakfast! I love my toast with butter and tea.

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Dark menacing clouds looming over.

﻿﻿﻿﻿But on our second day of the trip, we woke up with dark clouds looming over the dark grey menacing sky which signals for an impending storm. I remember switching on the television to watch the local news and live weather reports. It was unbelievable. We were touring in a foreign country which is experiencing serious flooding and landslides right now. The images of torrential rains and rapid-moving waters on the screen did scare me a little. How are we going to continue with the rest of the tour?

Despite the bad weather, our tour guide still remained positive and was certain that the weather would not hinder any of our current plans to tour the various attractions in Taiwan. He event quoted the number of years of experiences he had as a bus driver and tour guide and assured us that everything will be fine.

Just as we make our way to Sun Moon Lake, the sky began pouring.

Wenwu Temple
(文武廟)

We brave through the rain with our umbrellas and took shelter in the temple. Buddist-believers took this time to pray while the rest of us explored the this temple located at the northern shore of the Sun Moon Lake.

Pray for blessings.

Lil’ kid dancing in the rain.

Wow! Cafe in a temple?
The locals here do love their coffee. They can’t live without caffeine in their lives.

As the days went by, even our brollies would not stand the heavy rain and wind.

Sun Moon Lake, located at Nantou, is the largest lake in Taiwan and the region surrounding the lake is home to the Thaos, one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. It’s called Sun Moon Lake because the eastern part of the lake looks like a sun and the western part is shaped like a crescent.

There were some confusion about which boat we have to board. We walked from boat to boat under the rain before the tour guide led us to the right boat.

The rain stopped but the sky was still very cloudy and we could not really get a good view of the mountain peaks in the background.

Thick mist that blocks out the beautiful view of Sun Moon Lake.

The rainy season
Ponchos and brollies on display

Shopping for souvenirs

Owls represents wisdom.
Give this to the wise ones.

7-11 convenience store at Monster Village

My friends who visited Taiwan recommended me to check out their 7-11 or any convenience stores that offers alot of cool food stuff like their Taiwanese street snacks and variety of chilled drinks.

Tea leaf egg

Nice to enjoy something hot during a cold weather

After the lake cruise, we headed to Monster Village (妖怪村) but we couldn’t really explore the village which consist of small shops and eateries because it was still raining quite heavily. By then, I was feeling quite dissappointed.

The tour guide gave us about 30 minutes to explore the village but we spent most of the time seeking shelter. When time was up, I was praying that the rain would stop before we reach Sun link Sea where we do a short nature walk and some sightseeing.

It rained even more heavily!

We seek shelter at this small eating house.

Flower garden

Our guide at Sun Link Sea

Glass house

Pretty leave patterns

Cactus for sale!

Cactus are spiky and prickly plants. They may not look very attractive but their featural adaptations help them to survive in the desert. May we stay strong and tough despite the bad weather.